We still have to wait until next year to find out how dark Star Trek Into Darkness will actually be. Will this be... the darkest timeline? Will absolutely everybody have glued-on beards? It could happen. But in the meantime, there are two new Star Trek projects that will fill you with unspeakable darkness.

First up, there's Star Trek: Renegades, a pilot for a brand new webseries from the people who brought you Star Trek: Gods and Men. This one stars Voyager's Tim Russ, who also directed the thing. Also prominently featured in the trailer (above) is Chekov actor Walter Koenig, who just got his own star in the Walk of Fame. And Voyager's Garrett Wang, plus a bunch of other veteran Trek actors.

Renegades will be a departure from previous Treks – delving into the dark side of the human psyche, pushing our heroes to their limits, forcing them to carry out actions that they never would have as Starfleet officers. The rules have changed, and they realize they might be the last hope to save the Federation.

And then there's Star Trek: Hive, a brand new comics miniseries, which takes place during the TNG era, but also 500 years later. A dark, dark, future, when the Borg have won! They've assimilated almost everything and everyone, and Picard is Locutus once again. Picard is over 500 years old, and still giving elocution lessons. The series is written by Brannon Braga, who's become notorious for some dreadful decisions on Voyager and Enterprise — but who also was responsible for many of the greatest WTF moments in TNG and later series. Braga is the reigning champion of mindfucks on Star Trek, so I'm kind of excited to see him doing a pure "what the hell" story in the comics medium, where budget is not an issue.

I really didn't feel done with the Borg. They were my favorite villain. I did a lot of exploration of their universe, starting with the invention of the Queen, and really just how they work and how they think. Though some people might think they were overbaked, I never really felt finished with them at all. So I had one last story I wanted to do with them... The scenario is that the Borg have won. The story starts 500 years in the future, the Borg have assimilated the galaxy and we're with Locutus, the King of the Borg. This kind of wretched creature, this ancient guy, who's realizing that maybe this isn't perfection. That perhaps individuality is perfection. There's some small trace of Picard left in this guy.